Sooners Thump Owls 42-14

By: Justin Waganer

September 24, 2000

It took the Sooners halfway through the third quarter to realize that the "burn ban" had nothing to do with fried rice on Saturday.  Once Oklahoma was notified they promptly took care of business and put the Owls to sleep 42-14 in front of another sell out crowd in Norman.

Josh Heupel became OU's all-time TD pass leader after his pass to Josh Norman in the third quarter while he stayed true to form with another impressive performance.  27-35, 314 yards, 2 pass TD's, 1 rushing TD, and 2 interceptions.  After his 18 incomplete passes in game one, Heupel has thrown only 16 since.

Ken Hatfield's Owls used option misdirection and the long ball to confuse the Oklahoma defense that was expecting a mouthful of vanilla with the Rice option.  However, the final quarter and a half was dominated by the Sooners with three unanswered touchdowns and a 42-14 victory.

The Owls got to within 21-14 late in the third quarter and a hushed shock vibrated through Memorial Stadium.  Then Quentin Griffin decided to start breaking tackles.

"I thought we had him bottled up a couple of times and he just ran through some arm tackles and we weren't able to corral him and get him on the ground," said Rice Head Coach Ken Hatfield after the game.

Josh Heupel was effective the whole game with the Sooner offense, but was slowed by two interceptions inside the 30 and another pass was thrown to Antwone Savage for a first down and fumbled at the Rice 25 yard line.  However, Heupel still impresses his opponents.

"I think he is as accurate as any quarterback in the country," Hatfield remarked.

Though Stoops agrees with Heupel that continued improvement is needed.

"He was sharp, but threw two interceptions. He's much better than that," Stoops said.

The Sooners improved to 3-0 with the victory and start Big 12 play when the Kansas Jayhawks visit Owen Field next week.  With a win over KU the Sooners would be 4-0 for the first time since 1993 when the Sooners reached 5-0 before losing to Colorado.

The bottom line after the non-conference season for OU is this.  Nobody claimed this was a great team and it obviously isn't. 

A good team?  Yes.

Better than last year?  Yes.

Good enough to survive October?  Who knows, has anybody been watching college football?  At least one and most times more than one top ten team has lost every week of the season so far.  Nobody has looked great against a quality opponent, nobody.

So what's the story for the Sooners? 

Need a pass rush, whether it be Torrance Marshall as an end or new and unseen blitz packages emerging in the coming weeks, it's needed.  Offensively the Sooners have had success lining up and just throwing the ball in the first three games, but will need more trickery, etc. to beat the Big 12 foes. 

A Heisman candidate at Quarterback and a Butkus award candidate at Linebacker means the Sooners have the talent to win the big game.  Bring on the Big 12 or should I say, the Pac-10 of 2000.